harrybbq
Knows what a fatty is.
First a little background:
I own a Big Green Egg XL. I have cooked maybe 10 Costco primes in it, and another 15 Snake River Farms Wagyu black grade. The costco primes were always just OK, but the SRF wagyu were always amazing. I have gotten the SRF 18 lbs down to a science, where I can nail down the end of the cook to the half hour, and the result is always consistent and amazing. I am enlisted to cook for work bbqs every 3 months, and get the most flattering compliments ("best brisket ever", "holy $#%t this is good", etc). People tell me they look forward to these for months.
So, I just got a 20" Horizon Classic. I bought a sad looking last pick 12 lbs prime Costco packer, the thinnest flat I've seen. So sad. But since this was just a trial run to learn the new equipment, and my "guest" was only my wife, I figured it would be OK to mess this up.
So, I wake up at 4am to start the cook in order to eat early evening, late afternoon. It was a lot of fun to be outside tending to the fire. I appreciate the "Set and forget" of the egg for weekdays and overnights, but the offset is just so much more fun. I was struggling to keep the grate temp steady at 250, which wasn't happening. It was hovering between 225 and 275 as measured by the InkBird probes, BUT the dome temp was steady at 225 .
I made sure to feed small enough pieces of wood so that I could have a full raging small fire (dampers fully open) in order to "control" the temp solely by how much wood I put it. Smoke was always blue or completely transparent.
I wrapped it 2/3s into the stall, and cooked for another 2 hours. I pulled it when it probed tender in the flat.
When I took it to the kitchen I was already making excuses as to why it was going to be bad. But then I made the first cut at the tip of the flat. HOLY S%$#. I was so confused. It was amazing.
I then proceeded to cut in between the flat and the point, and then just the point. I looked at my wife and told here this was the best I've made among all, even SRF. She said "Really?!" and then proceeded to get some slices. Slices were buttery, juicy, and as tender as they can be without falling apart. The smoke flavor was much cleaner and more subtle than the Egg. Wife does not like smoke from the Egg...
As we sat down and ate, we couldn't stop wondering how the heck this happened. First time cook on new equipment, inferior piece compared to the stuff I usually use (SRF sagyu), and bad temperature control on my part. How did this happened? Was it a fluke? Can I ever reproduce this? Will a wagyu SRF be out of this world then?
The sad part is that now I'm not as excited smoking with the Green Egg given the results of the offset.
A couple of observations:
On the Egg I cook fat side down, and on the offset I did fat side up. When wrapped, the fat accumulated in the bottom, and on the Egg scenario, the meat is on top. Could it be the case that the fat side up on the offset, when wrapped, made it so the meat side down would be soaked in the accumulated melted fat, contributing to the amazing fluke result?
I'm trying to understand why this was so good so I can make this again. Me so confused.
I own a Big Green Egg XL. I have cooked maybe 10 Costco primes in it, and another 15 Snake River Farms Wagyu black grade. The costco primes were always just OK, but the SRF wagyu were always amazing. I have gotten the SRF 18 lbs down to a science, where I can nail down the end of the cook to the half hour, and the result is always consistent and amazing. I am enlisted to cook for work bbqs every 3 months, and get the most flattering compliments ("best brisket ever", "holy $#%t this is good", etc). People tell me they look forward to these for months.
So, I just got a 20" Horizon Classic. I bought a sad looking last pick 12 lbs prime Costco packer, the thinnest flat I've seen. So sad. But since this was just a trial run to learn the new equipment, and my "guest" was only my wife, I figured it would be OK to mess this up.
So, I wake up at 4am to start the cook in order to eat early evening, late afternoon. It was a lot of fun to be outside tending to the fire. I appreciate the "Set and forget" of the egg for weekdays and overnights, but the offset is just so much more fun. I was struggling to keep the grate temp steady at 250, which wasn't happening. It was hovering between 225 and 275 as measured by the InkBird probes, BUT the dome temp was steady at 225 .
I made sure to feed small enough pieces of wood so that I could have a full raging small fire (dampers fully open) in order to "control" the temp solely by how much wood I put it. Smoke was always blue or completely transparent.
I wrapped it 2/3s into the stall, and cooked for another 2 hours. I pulled it when it probed tender in the flat.
When I took it to the kitchen I was already making excuses as to why it was going to be bad. But then I made the first cut at the tip of the flat. HOLY S%$#. I was so confused. It was amazing.
I then proceeded to cut in between the flat and the point, and then just the point. I looked at my wife and told here this was the best I've made among all, even SRF. She said "Really?!" and then proceeded to get some slices. Slices were buttery, juicy, and as tender as they can be without falling apart. The smoke flavor was much cleaner and more subtle than the Egg. Wife does not like smoke from the Egg...
As we sat down and ate, we couldn't stop wondering how the heck this happened. First time cook on new equipment, inferior piece compared to the stuff I usually use (SRF sagyu), and bad temperature control on my part. How did this happened? Was it a fluke? Can I ever reproduce this? Will a wagyu SRF be out of this world then?
The sad part is that now I'm not as excited smoking with the Green Egg given the results of the offset.
A couple of observations:
On the Egg I cook fat side down, and on the offset I did fat side up. When wrapped, the fat accumulated in the bottom, and on the Egg scenario, the meat is on top. Could it be the case that the fat side up on the offset, when wrapped, made it so the meat side down would be soaked in the accumulated melted fat, contributing to the amazing fluke result?
I'm trying to understand why this was so good so I can make this again. Me so confused.
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